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Tuesday, 8 August 2017

The Original King Of The Monsters

I had a home-based web-meeting this evening for work. Fortunately it was audio only, so I was able to paint whilst I did it (don't tell the clients) and finished off this big tank I'd printed the other day. I wanted to try out both army units and an AI-controlled cyber-tank in Mighty Monsters, and after the meeting that's what I did. On one side, a massive cybernetic tank, and five conventional AFVs

Their job was to protect an oil refinery.

And attacking them? The original 1954 Godzilla!

One of the first pieces of news I saw when I got up this morning was that Haruo Nakajima had died. Now his name is not one that springs to mind when you're thinking of famous actors, but from 1954 until 1974 he was Godzilla. He was the man in the suit. This was a passing that demanded a game in his honour.

Basically I played one of the scenarios from the book; Godzilla had to inflict 50% casualties on the army and destroy the refinery.

He advanced. Some of the tanks took up position in the cover of a wood.

Godzilla continued to advance. The tanks fired, but inflicted no damage.

The cyber-tank slowly moved into position.

The problem with mechas controlled by an AI is that they have low Q values. I made the mistake of activating the cyber-tank first, and the failed activations kept causing turnovers before the conventional tanks could act. This allowed Godzilla to deftly slip past them. He used his atomic breath on the cyber-tank, damaging its power systems.

Whilst the tank tried to restart its power systems, Godzilla advanced on the refinery. Basically the defenders did nothing; failed activations saw none of the tanks move of fire for two complete turns.

Godzilla destroyed the refinery.

He then turned on the tank, but his teeth and claws couldn't penetrate the armour.

The tank was finally mobile again, and backed off, but couldn't manage a shot.

Godzilla attacked again, grabbing the cyber-tank this time, allowing his deadly bite more purchase. This revealed a flaw in the design of the defending force; with no melee attacks, the tank couldn't break free of the grapple, and neither could it shoot whilst in close combat. Basically Godzilla could destroy it at his leisure. The smaller tanks cold engage, but had a 50% chance of hitting the cyber-tank, so this was a risky strategy. I decided to give Godzilla the win.

With hindsight I should probably have just taken the risk with the other tanks, hoping that one shot would finally break Godzilla's hold. But it was supposed to be Godzilla's day and I was kind of disappointed in how the designs had failed me.

After a cup of tea I played the scenario again, having read the rules properly this time; Godzilla is required to destroy the refinery with close combat attacks. This time I also prioritised the activation of the conventional tanks before the cyber-tank. The result was a better balanced game, but I didn't get any pictures. Godzilla took hits from the tanks, before a run of terrible activation rolls saw both sides stand and look at each other for a couple of turns. Godzilla got his act together and destroyed two of the tanks, before running into the firepower of the cyber-tank. In a couple of rounds, the giant lizard and the giant tank both used up their ranged attacks, leaving the latter with just some relatively ineffective auto-cannon. Godzilla closed in and managed to seriously damage the cyber-tank with a single bite, but it managed to back off out of harm's way and when Godzilla tried to pursue he found that his wounds were too much for him and collapsed, giving humanity a victory.

It occurs to me that running the cyber-tank against a horde of conventional troops would make for a great game. I wonder if anyone's done it before?

The Stronghold Rebuilt

Officially a blog about 'Hordes Of The Things', the excellent fast-play fantasy miniatures rules from WRG. But expect minor, and not so minor diversions into other games as well, as my grasshopper-like mind leaps from one cool thing to another.

Allegedly worse than Hitler and more bigoted than The Miniatures Page. Actually not.